1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus, an image forming system, an information processing apparatus, program, and a storage medium storing the program.
2. Description of the Background Art
Recently, information leak in offices caused by careless handling of printed matter has become a problem. For example, printed matter may be forgotten to be picked up from image forming apparatuses such as printers at the point of production, or documents may be left on a desk in a careless way, by which sneak glance or theft of information may occur and then information leaks. Users may be educated not to forget to pick up printed matter or not to leave documents unattended, but the effects of such education are at best limited and an administrator is likely required to undertake aggressive countermeasures. Such countermeasures (or preventive measure) include secure printing and trace printing, which are two printing methods that have been widely used.
In secure printing, when an image forming apparatus connected to a personal computer (PC) receives a printing instruction, the image forming apparatus does not start a printing operation immediately. Instead, the printing operation is started when a user comes to the image forming apparatus and conducts a personal identity verification or check at the image forming apparatus. The personal identity verification can be implemented in various ways, such as placing an integrated circuit (IC) card over a card reader, inputting personal identity verification information such as a password from an operation panel, or the like (see, for example, JP-2001-051813-A). Such methods are not effective for careless documents leaving on desk, but can reduce forget-to-pick-up from an image forming apparatus, by which a moderate level of information security can be obtained.
At the same time, however, secure printing may not be so good for productivity. If secure printing is not used, a user can process other works with his or her PC until the completion of printing. However, if secure printing is applied, the user has to wait at the image forming apparatus for completion of printing, meaning that the user cannot do other works.
In trace printing, identification information that can identify a user is attached to the printed matter, which may be referred to as a print-requesting person instructing a printing operation. The administrator can then recover printed matter, which may be a document that is forgotten to be picked up from an image forming apparatus or document left on desk in a careless way, and can identify the print-requesting person, in which case a penalty or rule can be implemented and a measure for preventing such document mishandling can be implemented. Further, if a penalty is informed to print-requesting persons in advance, physiological effect of careful handling of printed matter may be expected.
In the trace printing, the identification information can be attached to printed matter in various ways, such as “watermark” and “composite text.” The watermark attached to images is identification information that cannot be sensed directly but must be machine-read (see, for example JP-2007-168282-A). Specifically, printing technologies such as digital watermark, transparent ink, or the like can be used. The composite text is characters or text representing identifying information synthesized at an edge portion of one page image, such as a header and footer, as identification information (see for example JP-2006-146490-A).
The watermark needs to be read by an apparatus such as an image forming apparatus to extract the identification information, and miss-reading may occur for such extraction, by which only a moderate level of security can be obtained. The composite text, on the other hand, is read by only person, and miss-reading may not occur so much, and the composite text can be effective for preventing forget-to-pick-up from an image forming apparatus and documents leaving on desk in a careless way, by which a high level of information security can be obtained. However, the composite text may confuse people, insofar as a printout product consists of a mixture of sentences in a main text part and the identification information is also text, which may cause a problem of readability. Watermark, which cannot be sensed directly, does not have this problem.
FIG. 12 summarizes features of secure printing, trace printing using watermark, and trace printing using composite text. As shown in FIG. 12, secure printing, trace printing using watermark, and trace printing using composite text are evaluated in terms of security level attained, productivity, and readability.
Security Level:
“O (circle)” may indicate two cases. In one case, the concerned printing method is effective for preventing forget-to-pick-up from an image forming apparatus without problem of precision, and is effective for preventing document leaving on desk in a careless way without problem of precision; or in other case, the concerned printing method is effective for preventing forget-to-pick-up from an image forming apparatus without problem of precision, and is effective for preventing document leaving on desk in a careless way with some concern on precision.
“Δ (triangle)” may indicate two cases. In one case, the concerned printing method is effective for preventing forget-to-pick-up from an image forming apparatus with some concern on precision, and is effective for preventing document leaving on desk in a careless way with some concern on precision; or in other case, the concerned printing method is effective for preventing forget-to-pick-up up from an image forming apparatus without problem of precision, and is not effective for preventing document leaving on desk in a careless way.
Productivity:
“O (circle)” indicates that a user can conduct other process at a place of his or her personal computer until a printing has completed.
“X (cross)” indicates that a user cannot conduct other process until a printing has completed, but only wait completion of printing in front of an image forming apparatus.
Readability:
“O (circle)” indicates that text information is included as sentences in main text but text is not used as identification information and not included in a printout, by which sentences can be read easily.
“X (cross)” indicates that text information is included as sentences in main text and text is used as identification information and appears in a printout, by which sentences cannot be read easily.
Conventionally, the above-described secure printing and trace printing are generally managed by an administrator but not a user issuing a printing operation instruction. Accordingly, only the administrator may conduct whether to set secure printing and/or trace printing, and whether to select the trace printing using watermark or the trace printing using composite text. Such administrator settings may not be changed so frequently. At the same time, however, print-requesting persons have various demands for print-requested image such as setting priority between productivity and readability.
If secure printing or trace printing using watermark is set as a printing method, an administrator's demand of higher security cannot be satisfied, and if the trace printing using composite text is set as the printing method, a print-requesting person's demand of higher readability cannot be satisfied. As such, in a conventional method, an administrator's demand and a print-requesting person's demand cannot both be satisfied simultaneously for any given set of print settings.